The Goderich Signal-Star, 1975-01-23, Page 16•
PAGE 10A—GOPERICH SIGNAL -STAR, THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 1
Forrest versus The King
“Bi
COPYRIGHT BY equipment," (Ship Island
W.E. ELLIOTT and Forrest Island were
S- .
Bill Forrest cared little for nameapplied at various
t
times to the same propert,y4
he democratic process- - he
never marked a ballot. He In 129, the Goderich
cared even less for con -
Elevator & Transit Co. built
stituted authority) he sued King and :
-
a million -bushel addition to
His Majesty the
„
its elevator, and Forrest was ,
in the picture, as related by'
hip rtnhe becamowner
several
won,. •
ts.
Born. on a Stanley town-
the Signa -$r: "Forrestpew dredge cominenced sfa, e
of' farms operations on Tuesday in the
Tuctersmith bunever eastern slip of the harbor;
t
operated them. Unmarried, opposite the new elevator.
he lived for rnuch of the time structure. The tug Forrest
in a shack at Goderich arrived back from
collingwood at the week -end
harbor, his base for 45 years
of partnership with the
and is assisting' in the work.
-
Bermingham Construction'. Forrest's scows were used inCompany. He died. 22 years towing along the lake front
'the mammoth steel marine
ago rblit is remembered by
' many for his great voice, 1e490 feet long."
great stature, great heart, The late Gavin Green in
great everything. one of his books recorded
"He was a colourful
that "the government made
figure," said the,Signal-Star, Bill Forrest move to the
"andhis giant -stature of six mainland and took away
part of the island, Bill wants
• feelsi,x covered a generous_
$100,000."
heart, as those who . knew '
•
him best affirm." The Signal -Star called it
was abouthe biggest Forrest's Island and'recalled
"He t
that "once. the Canadian,
man„ in these parts," ac-
cording to James Scott, G°verairient took,. issue with
Forrest 'about whether the
author of. The Settlement of
island really,' was. his. They
Huron County. "He was big
all the way through - a man
began dredging at it, but in a
•
with,a big heart, a .big mind; „ court action Mr. Forrest's
'
a big body, and oneof the squatter's rights were
biggest visions of this upheld."
country thany man ever That, however, is an over-,
at
had. On top of it all, he wore simplification of the
litigation. A goVerninent.
one of the biggest black
-Stetsons'1 have ,ev;ex. seen on",'- aontractor's dredge in
with Forrest's
9e head Of a man." ------ •
The Forrests came from.
,Peterhead ,in Aberdeenshire
arid settled in the.Hillsgreen
are,a, of Stanley, " where
William L. Forrest was born.
(In his, will the middle name
is given as Ctiren'ce; in one
Obituary as Laverne). In
later years he was owner
• a farm on..the Blind Line
. VOrrest was widely known
in Great Lake's pores as••.:.a
dredging contractor in
partnership with the :Ber-
mingham CO:nstructiOn..
.-,,Company of Hamilton; which
has ben associated with
Goderich har:bor works for
three generations of the;
family right up to 1974; when
it constructed a 303 -foot wail ,
:east of the Goderich
levator & Transit building.
Present head Of -the firm. is
William Bermingham.
BUILT
Forrest 'and the Ber-
minghaih company were
associated in construction of ,
the outer breakwalls,:, 500
feet of rock -filled timbd
cribs with a concrete -
superstructure above water
'Previbusly, entry to '
the port had been, extremely
hazardous for ships in
stormy weather.
According to recolle ns
• of John ("Spike" Bet-
...
minghatn, the' t
Forrest was buil in the ' ,
winter ,of 1491041 ". y a man.
named Babb". That would
.:._..have to be Capt. William
- Babb.
In, 1923, a Signal -Star item
announ-ced that "Contractor
Bermingham is having
new .scow built on Harbor
Island and repairing his
" (Continued from page 9AL
SeafOrth; Elgin Thompson,
R.R.3; Kippen; James Doig,
R.R.4, Seaforth; Robt.
McCartney, R.R.3, Seaforth.
•Stanley Horton,
R.R.5, Clinton; Ernest
Talbot, R.R.3, 'Kip.pen;
Elmer Hayter, RR.1,b.,
Varna; Anson McKinley,
• 'R.R.1; Zurich-, • .
• Hay — Vallie Becker,
• gashwOod; Howard Datars,
-Dashwood; Joseph Hoffman,
Zurith.
Stephen — Allen Turnbull,
• R.R.1, Grand Bend; Allen
Walper, R.R.3, Parkhill;
Glen Webbc,). R.R.2, Exeter;
Joe 'Dietrich, R,R.3, Dash-
wood.
Ushorne — Ken Duncan,
Kirkton;, -Larry Snider,
Exeter;,„ Roy WestcottW,
Exeter; Maurice
Love, R.R.3, Exeter; ,
• Ferguson,, R.R.1,
Bill Morley, R.11,1, Granton*"
Directors .at Large — Don
f1:41,11pn, Clinton; Ray Scot-,
chrner, Bayfield; L. P,
Plumsteel, Seaforth; Roy
Adair, Wingham; 13ill Hanly,
GOderich; Courtland Kerr, ,
R.R.5, Goderich; Roy
Bennett, Wingham; 'Wm. "
*Dale, Seaforth; SPenPe
-Cummings, Clinton;- John
_flay ; Walter
McBride, Usborne; Cecil
Desjardine, Stephen; . Roy
Willianison,, Grey; John
3eWitt,
ov
71*. .1..
a tt
„,.
Bill" fought the Crown for his island
island'and he hoppecl right in
with an injunction. Mr.
Justice Middleton at
Osgoode Hall issued an in-
terim injunction restraining
the Boone COntracAing &
Construction Company from
Interfacing with Ship Island
,in connection . with the
dredging operation t in,
Goderich ' •harbor.
Accordingly, • notice of eifotled remnant of the island
expropriation was given on 20ars later was dredged
the same date by the federal away, giving more room for
departnient, of public works grain ships rounding to the
on hehalf of H.M. the King, marine leg at the Goderich
"except fixtures, if oy,"' e[evator, Date of the "first'
bite" was July 16, 1962.
WI. Forrest had died: 10
year's earlier', in Haileyhury
Hospital', in hi 82nd year.
He had suffered a stroke.
The funeral -service was held
at JSeaforth:
Spike")• Ber-
mingham
. .
knew Forrest well,
and, set down his oWn
character sketch. He wrote:
"Bill's parents were very
strict Scotch Presbyterians
and he got such •a belly -full
of religion in' his ea-ly youth
that it acted in reverse:
'After he left home, the only
time he • ever -crossed the
and ., a blue, imprint Was
attached. •
Thus challenged by • the
Crowri, Forrest 'now took on
King George y • as
HELD CROWN LEASE represented hy. the •Ontario
•5orrest, who had used the department of lands and
island for some years as a fotests and also as
yard for the building of represented by the Dominion ,
dredges and scoWs, claimed department of pubtic y.forks.
to have.a Crown lease from . The' Goderich Star reported
the Ontario Minister of ' this move on July 10, 1934.
Lands and Forests, dated Nothing, resulted for some
August 16, 1929. ' years, at least nothing that
The Registry bffice record ,, required a Registry Office
of '"harbor lands and water entry, until the King
1
lots showed that Forresthad (Ontario) and the King,
"a license, of occupaney".'(Canada) evidently got
from the 9ntario, department, together in .a 'compromise, , threhold of a, church was
,)f lands and forests `froth with the Tpwn of Goderich \vhen he attended -the funeral
July 10, 1929. He was to pay *as a third , party. Their of a friend or relative, and
$7.per year for this nine -
decision was channeled' then he Couldn't get out fast
5
tenths of an athrough the
are property, Ontario enough. whAn_t_he service was
Then he obtained aproper Municipal Board, of which
R.S. Colter was chairman at u' er ... '
`
lease from Augusr 10, for, a .
"Bill's- education .stopped
'period of -20 years. . the time. An order dated at c." -rade three, yet in his
Rine 9, 1942, was issued, later years he, could,„ and
Dredging at the hai-bor
ceased as a result of Judge annexing Fotrest's Island to would write long passages of
Middleton's ,injunction, but the municipality. Following Bobby Burns, Shakespeare
In the matter of Bylaw 19 arid, Kipling propriatelysuitedwhenthey the aepc i-
and the contractor resumed
work. Counsel for the federal
on October '3 it was dissolved is the text:
of 1942, -an application ,for
'casion. While in manhood he
-.authorities told ,the-ceUrt the ...the annexation- thereto of practised no religion, he had
government , would ex certain Iatidshis own creed, and it was a
propriate "any interest heldUpon reading the pretty good -one. He was
by W.L. Forrest in the lands qualified comments ' of the meticulously honest,--ind,his
questiari." department of public works
word was sacred when once
and transport.of the,
Dominion of Canada ..and the
department of lands and
forests of the Province -of
Ontario; ordered ;that the
lands described by R.W.
Code, 0.L.S., he arid, the
same are hereby anneked to
the Town of Goderich from
."
• this date."
In surveyor's terms, the
island was then described as.
follows:. "Southern limit of
• Ship Street produced to,the
centre Of 'the' old channelconnectingt-be Maitland
River- with Lake Huron,
thence along said present •
boundary along the centre of
aid channel t� the, central
waterway of -the [Maitland,
River , in a northeast.
direction following the
several windings,of the main
'channel of the river to the'
intersection with a line on a'
.bearing due north from the
intersection of , the :north
limit of Caledonia Terrace
• the • east limit ',of
Waterloo street" etc.
DREDGED AWAY
All of which •is now ancient
"hiStory, inasmuch as' the
- •
• "Big'Bill" Forrest (light/ng hill .1:7%.joe, left)
.Wilharn .Bermi‘n•gham(seated) founder of •
Bermingham,. Construction,. were • partners
around the turn -of .the' century when •tugs.. •
and qhorses .were common means of tran-
sporting material for lobs such as the outer
'breakwalls kere.
a o' •
tt
given. He Was generous to
a fault when he had acquired
some wealth, but he used to
say 'when I was a 64 on the
faun, the 'purchase of a two-
cerit stamp for a letter was a
serious consideration:.
"While his vocabulary was
phenoinenal, and ' most M. his
similes were cOaFse
and ...original, part ofhis
creed •was that. he never ate
meat on Fridays (probably
because Dad (Wm. Ber-
mingham) was a Roman
. Catholic, and he 4Jways went'
on the , water wagon during
Lent, never louching a drop
of liquor. or
LIFTED 827 POUNDS
'He grew into a veritable
giant of 'a plan, six feet fouftr';,..,
and about 250 to 260 pounds,
and he literally *didn't know.
"his own strength. Dad used
to tell of a time when their
job was laying a IO, -inch
diameterc,cast iron water -
main. The'tr-enches were' dug
by Jiand by a gang of'about
20 laborers, Mostly Italians,
and the pipe was strung
along the - top of the spoil
hank, where it could be
easily rolled into the trench
and the leaded joint made.
One day, a 16 Tt. pipe rolled
•ctqWn,tbe side away-frbm the
trench-, and"Bill-went about
tp men to retrieve it After a
futile • effort on "the part of
the Italians, Bill let roar
4611 of him and ordered the
men out of the way. He went
to theend of the pipe, lifted
.it waist -high and then onto
, .
his shoulders. He walked
toward the....point of balance,,
then up the baniCand laid it,
down by the same method In
Dad looked up ,his
Trathwine (the Engineets'
,,Bible), -and discovered that.
the pipe weighed 827 -pounds!
"Bill never toldme much
about the yeks between his
leaving the farm and
teaming up with Dad at age
32- in about 1905 or.1906, but I
know he worked -almost
excluSively on marine
construction jobs, and was a
foreman on .sUch-Wak when
they met."
"First Bite."'"Wernains ofrShip Island, at the eastern end of Goderich harbor, were dredged away in
‘1?6,2, This picture was taken on the morning of July 16, as dredge and scow-Frooved in to start
work. .
to•
o
No0 *4"t
is offering a
Between January 13 andlekruary
Buy new -
Pontiac Astre
„Pontiac, Ventura
Buick Apollo
Buick Skylark
*Top Trade-in Allowances'
*Most models in stock, ready,,for
immediate delivery
ail Y
HAMILTON STREET,
PONTIAC
BUICK
CADILLAC
• GODER1CH 524-8391
I g
4. •
)
Lit ti
• -• • tyft . o •
4 "
This picture was taken when the island
by' W.I. Forrest–far–building" dredges
in the hdrbor'was in .use
and scows. "He ;mos in
partnership... frpm about
4
1066 wit.
•
Bermingham. Construction
If you're Outing
a'SUNSHINE •
VACATION and
have, been caught'
a little short..
We cif your.
CREDIT
UNION
Will help'
•
. .,.,_
TYPICAL ,REPAYMENT SCHEDUVE
Amount
borrowid
4 monfilly poyments
f2
ib 113
24
38
-----,---„
MOO
0' 1500
•2000
2500
41181
133.24
.T77.85
222,08
809
91.45
121,93
152M2"117,84,
*
47.04
70.58
94.10
• "4
33.10
49,79
66,39
83,00
, .
Goderich Community
INTEREST ON ArtevE EXAMPLES AT 12% pEllgANNUM• 39 ST, DAVID ST,T GODER1CH
• . 524.7931
a
ol
" • _